How to Reset Your Healthy Eating Habits
If the continued disruption of the covid pandemic isn’t enough, overindulging during the holidays may have taken a toll on you and may have derailed you from your healthy eating routine. You’re not alone, I’ve talked to many people who struggled this holiday season. Our routines change with holiday gatherings and getting to the gym seems to get put on the back burner. Can you relate?
Fortunately, there are specific steps we can take to get ourselves back on track.
Here are 10 helpful strategies for hitting the reset button on your plant-based eating regimen:
Don’t beat yourself up.
There are plenty of valid reasons you slipped from or even ditched your healthy eating habits during the holiday season, give yourself some grace and climb back on the vegetable cart.
Review your “why” and embrace it again.
Why did you begin following a whole food plant-based lifestyle? Reminding yourself of your 'why' helps keep you motivated to change and resist the short-term gratification of tasty but unhealthy foods. What motivates you to maintain healthy eating habits? Is it to have more energy? So that your clothes fit you better? For cholesterol and blood pressure levels within a normal range? Write down three personal reasons why you're choosing to implement healthier eating habits in the New Year and refer to them when you're feeling discouraged.
Re-frame your mindset.
It’s a New Year, but it’s the same you! In order to set yourself up for success, it is important to make sure any goals you set are in line with your values and are not simply in response to pressure from the media, friends, or family members. Start with a very small goal, even insultingly small, with the idea of making sure that goals remain manageable. Small goals set us up for small successes. Start out walking around the block and build from there. Or having a salad at the front-end of lunch and dinner meals.
Make a plan.
Go back to the basics. Wash and prep your vegetables as soon as you bring them into your kitchen. Batch cook multiple meals so you have food at-the-ready to heat and eat. Have the refrigerator stocked with cooked grains and beans. Have washed fruit in a basket on the counter. Having meals planned and prepped cuts out impulsive decisions like dining out. Yes, stop eating out, it’s time to start cooking at home again. Get some daily exercise too. Is a 30-minute walk too much to ask? And remember to DRINK MORE WATER!
Stick to a schedule.
I’m talking a military-type schedule. Plan what time you plan to eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner AND what you plan on eating at each meal. Write it down or schedule it on your Google calendar. By doing this you can see when you’re next meal is going to be and you’ll be less inclined to snack in-between meals.
Clean out your environment.
Get rid of the junk that caused you to fall off the wagon. Review with your family that you plan on following your plant-based lifestyle again and that you don’t plan on cheating. If everyone in your household is not on board with your lifestyle, ask them to prepare their own meals or you’d be happy to share your healthy meal with them. If they’re old enough to cook it’s time for them to be responsible for their own meal preparation.
Set realistic goals.
If you gained a few pounds between Thanksgiving and the New Year, don’t expect it to be gone in a few days. Give it time. You’ll also need some time for your tastebuds to regenerate, which takes between 3-4 weeks. If you indulged in salty, sugary, and fatty food, you will crave salty, sugary, and fatty food. Don’t give in to your cravings. Get moving, but don’t call it exercise. Whether it be dancing in the kitchen, a walk around a nearby park, cleaning the house, or weeding your garden, get moving!
Establish good eating habits.
Whether it be eating three servings of fruit each day or filling half your plate with green leafy vegetables, write down what good habits you want to establish. Maybe it’s eating a rainbow of foods every day. Write down a few good habits and check them off daily. You’ll not only be creating healthy habits, you’ll see the progress you’re making in conquering your goals. Focus on all that you can eat and not what you can’t eat.
Don’t deprive yourself.
You’re not on a diet, you’re simply re-establishing the healthy lifestyle that happened to fall by the wayside during the holiday season. I’m not a fan of deprivation, it only causes binge eating in my opinion. Get yourself out of the mentality that you need and deserve these big, rich meals. No, you don’t. What you need is a big Buddha Bowl of grains, beans, greens, tomatoes, carrots, sprouts, and seeds, all drizzled with a delicious vinaigrette. Load up, size matters and it’s an all-you-can-eat when it comes to whole food plant-based ingredients.
Aim for progress, not perfection.
While I personally think this statement along with “everything in moderation” is an excuse for bad behavior, some people just need to be making some sort of progress and that’s a victory for them. So focus on creating dietary habits that are sustainable, enjoyable, and nutritionally adequate for your needs. If you’re making progress but not yet 100% compliant, decide if that’s good enough for you. Remember, your long-term health outcomes will be dictated by your long-term eating habits.
